1. Technology Field
The present invention relates to a data writing method for a non-volatile memory, and a rewritable non-volatile memory controller and a rewritable non-volatile memory storage system using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the widespread of digital cameras, cell phones, and MP3 in recently years, the consumers' demand to storage media has increased drastically. Rewritable non-volatile memory is one of the most adaptable memories for such battery-powered portable products due to its characteristics such as data non-volatility, low power consumption, small volume, and non-mechanical structure. A flash drive is a storage apparatus adopting rewritable non-volatile memory as storage medium. Rewritable non-volatile memory has been broadly used for storing important personal data thanks to its small volume and large capacity. Therefore, the rewritable non-volatile memory industry has become a very important part of the electronic industry in recent years.
A memory die of a rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus has a plurality of physical blocks, and each physical block has a plurality of physical pages, wherein data must be written into a physical block according to the sequence of the physical pages in the physical block. In general, the procedure of writing data into a physical page may be divided into a data transfer portion and a data program portion. To be specific, when data is about to be stored into the physical page of the memory die, the control circuit of the rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus first transmits the data to the buffer of the memory die. Then, the memory die programs the data from the buffer into the physical page. During the control circuit of the rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus transmits the data to the buffer of the memory die, the memory die is at a transmission status. And, during the data is programmed into the physical page, the memory die is at a busy status.
In order to increase the writing speed of a rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus, a plurality of memory dies is disposed in the rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus and data is written in a interleave manner or a parallel manner. For example, taking a rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus having a first memory die and a second memory die, which coupled to a control circuit via one data input/output bus, as an example, when a host system is about to store a plurality of page data (i.e., data having the length that is larger than the capacity of one physical page) into the rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus, the control circuit may transmit one page data to the first memory die. After that, during the first memory die is at the busy status, the control circuit may transmit another page data to the second memory die. Then, during the second memory die is at the busy status, the control circuit may transmit another page data to the first memory die. Accordingly, the first and second memory dies are alternately received data from the control circuit and program the received data, thereby shortening the time for writing data.
In particular, when the memory die is at the transmission status or the busy status, the memory die needs power to transmitting data or programming data. However, in view of a flash drive operated with the power supplied by a data transmission interface of a host system, when several memory dies are enabled at the same time (i.e., several memory dies are at the transmission status and the busy status at the same time), the power supplied by the data transmission interface may be not enough, such that the stability of the rewritable non-volatile memory storage apparatus is reduced.
Nothing herein should be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art of any portion of the present invention. Furthermore, citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention, or that any reference forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art.